


On a Cold Winter Morning

by AnubisWrites



Series: The Teacher AU [1]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Fluff, I wrote this one a while back, M/M, Teacher AU, Thomas and Richard are very happy and love their kids, Thought i might as well post it here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24591529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnubisWrites/pseuds/AnubisWrites
Summary: Mr. Barrow is a very good History teacher, but his own story isn't very well known. Today is the day his class gets to meet his mysterious family, and learns to love their teacher even more.Or, the one where Barris and kids are cute.
Relationships: Thomas Barrow & George Crawley, Thomas Barrow & Sybbie Branson, Thomas Barrow/Richard Ellis
Series: The Teacher AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777612
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	On a Cold Winter Morning

**Author's Note:**

> This was written a while back based on some headcanons me and my friends Anna, D, Bumble, and Casey had on Tumblr group chat. [Here's](https://amandaanubis.tumblr.com/post/618201561290702848/on-a-cold-winter-morning) the original post if you want to find them.  
> Enjoy!

“And then when he started having financial problems, King Louis XVI called the different estates for a meeti-”

It was the middle of class on a cold winter morning at Outwood Academy Ripon. The reflecting snow was preventing anyone from daring to look out and daydream. Speaking of cold, Mr. Barrow, the history teacher, was teaching about The French Revolution, when his phone started ringing. He excused himself and walked to the door to take the call. 

“Oh, hello darling. What is it?”

Well, this was new. The students looked at their neighbours, wondering if they were hearing this right. Mr. Barrow and being soft spoken? What miracle was this? Mr. Barrow walked back to the front of the class to address them. “There’s going to be a slight interruption in class today. Due to the bad weather, we were not able to find a babysitter. So, my kids are going to sit with us today. I hope none of you mind.” But his face held no sign of a request, and no one protested the idea.

He continued with the lesson and the seats began to rumble with whispers. “Who can handle Mr. Barrow for the rest of her life?” and “I hope we get to see her as well.” were heard in the intermingled conversations. Despite being a storyteller in his classes, Mr. Barrow was not the most outspoken of the teachers and today was the first time any of them had heard that he had a family.

After about ten minutes of discussion of the class system in France, there was a knock at the classroom door. Everyone turned to catch a glimpse of Mr. Barrow’s enigmatic partner. 

A little girl of about 6 came running towards the teacher, shouting “Papa!” in joy, and behind her came a blonde tall man, carrying a baby. Mr. Barrow picked up the girl and spun her about once, grinning widely and then turned to the man to kiss him chastely. 

One of the students, nicknamed Gem, got his phone out subtly and thought to himself “Today is going to be a good day.”

Mr. Barrow turned to the class to introduce the kids to them, “This is Little Miss Sybbie,” and he tickled her nose with his “and here is George.” He said, indicating the baby. “They’ll be staying in the class today. He put down the girl and then took the baby and the children’s bag from the other man, who was apparently much more comfortable with PDA and hugged him tightly before passing the child.

Another student, Luck, looked at the man and raised her eyebrows at her teacher. “And aren’t you going to introduce him?”

Mr. Barrow looked, quite dreamily (or as dreamily as they imagined Mr. Barrow could) at the man and said, “And this is my husband, Richard Ellis, who’s going to leave this very second to go to work.” Some students laughed, some were still in shock from the proceedings, and everyone tried not to coo when Mr. Ellis stole a quick kiss at the door.

The teacher returned with a smile on his face and sat down Sybbie and George at a spare table. George kept making grabby hands at his father, and Sybbie tried to distract him while the latter taught, but before he had gotten through half of the next page, the baby started crying.

Mr. Barrow held him again and started on the reasons of dissatisfaction of the Third Estate. He taught as if he was reading him a bedtime story (probably to lull him to sleep) and the baby was satisfied with the attention. He giggled at the intonations and enactments of certain events that the class loved about their dramatic History teacher. 

Whenever someone answered a question right, Mr. Barrow would look right at little George and tell him, “That’s correct! You’re doing a great job sweetheart.” And the baby would burst into giggles. It was a fine reward for getting the questions right.

Meanwhile, Gem was busy looking over Sybbie’s shoulders without her or Mr. Barrow noticing. She was drawing her papa and brother and the sight was too cute to ignore. She drew hearts around the crayon coloured illustration and his heart almost melted. George was calm now and Mr. Barrow gave him to Sybbie and tried to appear poised. This was soon going to prove itself to be a failed endeavour.

Sybbie sat George in her lap and began talking to him about a picnic they were going to go to. Gem was confused as to how they were having a picnic in such weather but did not question it. He was a younger sibling himself and supposed that was how older siblings dealt with the younger ones. And he was partially correct. They had been planning a picnic today, but the unfortunate weather had stopped that plan at the last minute. Little Sybbie was not dismayed so quickly though and was enjoying this trip to her papa’s school just as much.

George’s attention was caught by the bright colours of the drawing on the desk. Sybbie showed him the drawing from up close and pointed out the figures. “That chubby one is you Georgie, and here’s Papa! His sweater looks nice. I don’t like green.” Gem heard her say and looked at the dark green sweater Mr. Barrow was wearing. It was a rich and sophisticated colour, but no match for the bright orange his drawing was working. “Doesn’t this look so much better on Papa?” she proudly whispered to George, very pleased with her executive decision.

God, his heart was going to give out.

He was taking out his phone subtly to capture the scene, when it happened. 

“And so, the Third Estate moved to a tenn-”

“Pa-pa.”

Mr. Barrow stopped in the middle of his sentence and ran up to his son, a grin across his face.

“George! Can you say it again? Say pa-pa!”

The class sat silent, realising the importance of the moment for Mr. Barrow, and Gem tried to start the camera.

George clapped his hands with amusement and giggled at the sudden attention. His sister and his father kept repeating the word, and so he did too. “Pa-pa!” he said, and Mr. Barrow picked him up and spun him high above his head. They were both laughing with joy and the class started whooping to cheer them on even more.

After he came down from the high for a moment and realised he still had a class to teach, the teacher kissed George on the head and gave him to Sybbie. He kissed Sybbie on her cheek and returned to the board with a spring in his step and a smile on his face.

It was nice to see him so happy.

The rest of the afternoon was pleasantly calm, and they finally finished the lecture on the Meeting of the Estates General. But the students had not had enough of this new Mr. Barrow and his adorable family. At lunch, they joined in the cafeteria and discussed the plan of action.

The last bell of the day rang, and they all rushed to Mr. Barrow’s last class. They got there just in time to see him about to leave. Mr. Ellis was there as well and was currently rolling his eyes behind his husband. 

“I’m telling you Richard he said papa! Why can’t you believe me?”

Mr. Ellis went to his daughter and started putting her stuff in the bag. He smiled and then replied, “Yeah sure he did. I totally believe you.” And Mr. Barrow turned back from picking up George’s stuff with a glare and then stopped when he looked at the door. His students stood there, the ones in front trying to silence everyone at the back. Very well, here are the witnesses!

“Why don’t you ask them? They heard him!” and he ushered the crowd into the room. They all agreed with Mr. Barrow and he looked extremely proud of himself for his genius while Mr. Ellis was whispering something to Sybbie. She covered her mouth with her hands and was trying not to laugh.

Mr. Ellis turned to them. “They’re your students, of course they agree with you.” He said, unimpressed and unconvinced. Mr. Barrow rolled his eyes, and this was Gem’s time to shine. “I’ve got proof!” He moved to the front of the crowd and pulled out his phone. Mr. Barrow was about to scold him, but he played the video and the man turned beet red. Mr. Ellis half hugged him and remarked a little too low to hear, “Happiness suits you Thomas.” 

And then he immediately followed it up with, “But I didn’t hear him say it, so who knows?”

Mr. Barrow looked back at his husband with utter frustration and decided to change plans. Better to get the facts straight from the horse’s mouth. He picked up George and encouraged him to save his honour. 

While he was engrossed in bribing his son with “Yes! Say papa. I know you can sweetheart!”, Luck sneaked up to Mr. Ellis and pulled him a bit away. The others crowded around their teacher to help her and she began with a handshake.

“Hey Mr. Ellis. We don’t have much time,” she spared a glance at Mr. Barrow, “and so we need your help.” When he looked at her quizzically, she elaborated. “Look, we all love Sybbie and George. And we’d like to keep in touch. Mr. Barrow would never agree to it, but we thought maybe you were the more chill partner in this duo?”

One the other side of the room, Mr. Barrow was admitting defeat for the moment. George was getting extremely sleepy and nothing good could come out of pestering a drowsy baby. He picked up the bag and Mr. Ellis joined him with Sybbie. 

“Well. It has happened once,” he looked pointedly at his husband, “and it will happen again. Maybe not now.” They started leaving, with Mr. Barrow whispering to the sleeping baby over his shoulder, “Go to sleep sweetheart. I know what your first word was, and your dad will know soon as well.”

Mr. Ellis followed him to the door and subtly winked at class before turning into the hallway.

Luck and Gem high fived while a cheer went through the class.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment what you liked, or didn't like. And you can find me as @amandaanubis on Tumblr.


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